Dubai, (Cricket news) Debutant Akif Raja and wrist-spinner Palaniapan Meiyappan took seven wickets as UAE dominated Ireland in the 2nd T20I to secure a 54-run win.
After Ireland were given a difficult target of 164 to chase, Raja ripped through the Irish top order: Paul Stirling, Kevin O’Brien and Andrew Balbirnie all fell victim to the right-arm seamer in the powerplay. Stirling was out for 1 as he top-edged a ball to mid-on, Balbirnie (9) departed to an excellent catch at deep square leg and O'Brien edged a delivery outside off stump that flew into the keeper’s hands.
A difficult powerplay meant Ireland faced an uphill task from there and regular breakthroughs followed: Gareth Delany was stumped off Raza’s bowling and Meiyappan accounted for the lower middle order of Curtis Campher, George Dockrell and Neil Rock. Campher had briefly offered some hope and resistance for Ireland, moving to 22 off 15, but he was bowled to leave Ireland 74-5 within 12 overs.
Despite a couple of dropped catches in the field, UAE won comfortably as they bounced back impressively from a heavy defeat to the same opponents the previous day – victory was finally sealed in the 19th over, when Craig Young was dismissed by Waseem Muhammad.
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Earlier in the match, UAE had put together a fine display with the bat after Ireland chose to field, recovering impressively after opening batter Muhammad was dismissed in Josh Little’s opening over for a duck. Chirag Suri top-scored for the hosts with an impressive half-century, his fourth in T20Is and one that included three fours and a six down the ground off Simi Singh’s bowling.
Vriitya Aravind (23 off 15) and Muhammad Usman (32 off 31) helped keep the scoreboard ticking at the other end, but the real fireworks came from Basil Hameed whose cameo saw him take 39 runs off 20 deliveries. His final flourish included 19 runs off his bat in the final over of the innings courtesy of some innovative strokeplay – including a shuffle to the leg-side and fine cut over the keeper’s head for four. Kashif Daud’s 12 off seven added to Ireland’s struggles as they failed to reach the heights of Thursday, when they limited UAE to a total of 123-7.
The pick of the bowlers for Ireland proved to be Little, who followed up an economical display in Thursday’s victory with figures of 1-24 from his four overs, while Campher also kept things tight in the middle overs with 19 runs conceded from his three overs.
With the series level at 1-1, the third and final T20I on Sunday will serve as a decider.
Match Summary
Ireland Men v United Arab Emirates Men, 1st T20I, ICC Global Cricket Academy Ground No 2, Dubai, 7 October 2021
UAE 163-4 (20 overs; C Suri 51, B Hameed 39*; J Little 1-24)
Ireland 109 (18.4 overs; C Campher 22; P Meiyappan 4-25)
UAE won by 54 runs (series 1-1)
